One of the first few designs that I drew for Amy Adele was of a little Cape Cod house drawn in memory of the sweet little house I grew up in. I call it the Richmond House. My house was located at 2938 Lawrence Drive in Falls Church, Virginia which is just outside the city of Washington, D.C. I lived in the same house from the day I came home from the hospital until the day I married! The memories I shared there with my parents and big sister, Kelly, are more than I could possibly remember. It was a 3 story, 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 1,300 square foot home built in 1948. My parents bought it from the original owners in 1973. All the houses in my neighborhood were built exactly the same but by the time I was a kid, it was neat to go to my neighbor’s houses to see how they had remodeled and changed the layouts by various owners over the years. My father finished off the attic so my sister and I would have our own rooms and a bathroom. When my sister came upstairs it opened right up into my room. There was no door or anything! But I had to walk through her room to use the bathroom so it was kind of fair. :) She is nearly 6 years older than me so by the time I was in middle school she was off to college and I had the whole attic to myself, so I had no complaints. Our kitchen was so small that I have yet to visit a home with a smaller one, but my mother made it work! We would host large family gatherings without a hitch! Our basement was so cold in the summer (and my room was so hot), that I think I spent most my summer days down there. My parents liked things neat on the main floor so my sister and I made all our tents, Little House on the Prairie scenes, puppet shows, and more either in our rooms or in the basement. My backyard was huge and I spent a lot of time out there swinging in our hammock, playing kickball with my family after dinner, and exploring the little creek that ran along the back end. Until the summer that I got poison ivy head to toe. Ugh! Our street was pretty busy for our little neighborhood. The fire engine drivers liked to use our street as their shortcut so I got used to the sirens at all hours of the day, but our busy street was great for our lemonade stands! Our house was built on a corner lot so the quiet side street is where I learned to ride my bike and where I’d head off to when I walked to my elementary school. In “my day” I had to walk to school, but now there is a bus to pick up kids who live there! My parents sold our house in 1997 and I’ll never forget the moment we pulled out of the driveway for the last time. I cried! It was almost like saying goodbye to a lifelong friend for the last time. My parents currently live near me in South Carolina. Some days I wish they had brought the house with them and we could still call it home. We recently received word that our house was on the market again! We were thrilled to see it has been well loved and cared for. Take a look at it here!